HRW also said the Israeli military repeatedly failed to take into account the presence of civilians when it targeted Hezbollah, despite numerous media reports and Israel's own experience of past conflicts.

"Israel wrongfully acted as if all civilians had heeded its warnings to evacuate southern Lebanon when it knew they had not, disregarding its continuing legal duty to distinguish between military targets and civilians," Mr Roth said.

"Issuing warnings doesn't make indiscriminate attacks lawful."

The report also accused Israel of undertaking a deliberate campaign against Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance, but also its political and social welfare institutions.

'Accepted norms'

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Mark Regev, defended his country's conduct, saying it had acted lawfully.

"We conform with accepted norms in the conduct of military conflict and we conformed with the accepted norms in the conduct of the rules of war," he told Reuters.

We conform with accepted norms in the conduct of military conflict and we conformed with the accepted norms in the conduct of the rules of war

Mark RegevIsraeli Foreign Ministry

Mr Regev also disputed HRW's claim that it could find no evidence - including in videos and photos published by the Israeli military - that Hezbollah fighters had used civilians as "human shields".

"Hezbollah had a clear pattern of behaviour where it embedded itself among the Lebanese civilian population and exploited it as human shields. This is not just the Israeli understanding," he said.

He then cited the UN humanitarian relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, who said in July 2006 that the group were unlawfully "shielding themselves close to UN posts and close to the civilian population".

The war in Lebanon started with a border incursion by Hezbollah, in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two others kidnapped, prompting a massive Israeli response.